Summary:
Kendrapada: A daylong dolphin census started at Gahiramatha marine sanctuary in Kendrapada district on Saturday. Gahiramatha was declared a marine sanctuary in 1997 by the state government to protect the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles as Gahiramatha beach is the world’s largest rookery of sea turtles. “On January 19 last year, we sighted 45 Irrawaddy dolphins, 92 bottlenose dolphins, 108 sousa chinensis and 62 sousa plumbera dolphins,” Arabinda Mishra, the range officer of Gahiramatha, said. It was cancelled in 2016 and 2017 owing to inclement weather.While forest officials counted 307 dolphins in 2018, they had sighted 270 dolphins in 2015. “We engaged 10 teams to count the dolphins..